The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-08-21
KENYON'S VERSION.
His Five Years Rough Experience
In the West

His Five Years Rough Experience
In the West
Bret Harte's ''CicelyP" Yes. Well,
"That reminds me Of somethin' right
in that suit"
We had it rough, Molly and /, for
five years. We were New Englanders,
both Of us; but had come West years
before when wasn't much more than
boy, to get rid of the lung fevers !
used to have every spring sure, and
may be the fall between thrown in. !
had nothing but my two hands to start
with; but as soon rs I'd made begin
ning--a small one, of course-I went
back for Molly
And then, as l said, for FIVE years we
had it rough.
In the first place, we were burned
out in the town, and never saved
thing but the clothes we stood in and
my team. Then we started again out
on the edge Of every thing, where land
was cheap, and it looked as il hard
work might count for something. That
time the Indians ran us off. Never
saw an Indian? Well sir, you never
want to. l don't want to be hard on
any thing the Lord saw fit to make. /
suppose He knows what they are for
or what He meant them for-I know
there's good deal of talk lately about
their wrongs. They've had 'em, sure
enough; may be don't see things all
round as l ought to. They say all gen.
eral rules bear hard on particular
cases. I'm one of the particular cases,
perhaps. Anyhow, they killed one of
the children thcrc--the girl, five years
old; shot her right in full sight Of the
cabin, and Molly hasn't got over it till
this day,
picked up few head of cattle
cheap that fall, and for year we
lived in wagon, camping and driv-
ing our cattle across the ranges. You
don't know what that life means for
woman, take it month in and month
out. Cooking over camp fire, and
not much of any thing to cook. any
how; clothes wet half the time; never
warm in winter nor cold in summer,
and never clean. That year the boy
died--snake-bit. We were so far from
a settlement that we couldn't get
doctor, and we buried him ourselves
We got into cabin in the fall. Four
of us, each one poorer than the others,
took section of Government land.
We had our teams and our health, and
we were down to bedrock; not much
of any thing to lose and every thing to
gain. A man will work under such
circumstances, you'll find. We built
in the middle on the adjoining corners
of our quarters, and so had little
settlement of our own. We.did it for
the sake of the women; for it made an
almighty sight of travel for us to get
over in the course of the day. They
were all New England women, slender
and spare, but solid grit clear through.
Plymouth Rock is pretty good stock.
Never whimper nor complaint out
of one of them, though there wasn't
second frock in the crowd; and if
there was always corn-bread and
coffee enough for two in any Of the
shanties it wasn't in ours. After awhile,
though, we had game enough-quail
and prairie chickens. Prairie chick
ems! l wouldn't be hired to touch one
now. ! remember one day along to-
ward spring when Molly struck. We
had had quail and prairie chicken,
prairie chicken and quail, three times
day ever since l could remember. it
seemed to me. She put her fork down
and pushed her plate away and just
quoted out of the Bible. mot one day.
nor two days nor five days, neither ten
days nor twenty days, but even until it
come out at your nostrils and be loath-
some unto YOU" Molly knew the BIZ
BILE.
1t really began to look as if we had
touched bottom. That next spring we
got our crops in-corn laid by, rain
and sunshine and hot weather all just
right; and now and then we would hear
laugh from the houses.
But the day the grasshoppers came
there was mighty little laughing done.
Clayton came in where was taking
my noon smoke and kind Of dropped
down in chair by the door, as if he
couldn't get any farther.
"Mountaineersr' he said. with
kind of gasp.
''WhatP' / said, not knowing but it
was another kind of an Indian.
'Grasshoppers" 1t seems he had
been there before.
Iran out, and sure enough there they
were, coming up against the sun like
low kind of cloud. And in minute
or two it was like being out in a live
hail-storm. We tried to fight them
with fire and hot water. but we gave it
up in an hour. All day we sat and
listened to that horrible cracking and
crunching, and when they got through
it looked as if a fire had gone over us.
Not green thing left, and corn-stalks
gnawed down to stumps.
We held council of war. The end
Of it was that we drove our stock into
the town next day, thirty miles, and
sold it. 1t didn't make us rich, but at
least we got the price Of the hides
Then three Of us went to work in the
coal-shippings, and Jim Clayton went
back to stay with the women. He had
smashed his shoulder that summer and
was Of no mortal use with shovel and
pick. We were to keep them in sup
plies, and it looked as il. after all,
things might have been worse,
And they got worse before great
while. The coal company petered out
Just as the zeal cold weather set in.
We took back big load of coal; it was
the only pay we ever got for our last
fortnight's work, and called another
council.
Along in November latc-about the
time when they were keeping Thanks
giving on the side where they know
what Thanksgiving mcans-we started
out on a buffalo hunt There was
enough to cat, such as if was, for a
month in the cabins. and fuel enough
to keep them warm; and by that time
we thought work might begin again.
Anyway. we'd have our meat for the
rest II the winter
Well. it's no use to go over that 1t
wasn't . pleasure trip. We weren't